


Always

by AerinM



Category: Fablehaven Series - Brandon Mull
Genre: Brackendra, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Mostly Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Some Plot, i only listed probably the main culprits, lots of fablehaven characters make appearances, main focus is brackendra, some warrenessa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17437811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AerinM/pseuds/AerinM
Summary: A collection of inter-connected one-shots that take place after the end of Book 5. Lots of Bracken/Kendra fluff. Other characters are involved as well, of course. *Not compliant with Dragonwatch*





	1. Embarrassment

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter will be a different one-shot (with possibly occasional exceptions that may take more than one chapter to get through). Happy readings, I hope you enjoy! This first chapter starts off immediately after the end of book 5.

Kendra was flushed, distracted and quite obviously floating on Cloud Nine as she walked through the forest back to her grandparents' house after seeing Bracken off at the shrine to the Fairy Queen. She felt lighter than air and energized enough to run across a thousand football fields in tiny circles. To say that she was elated would be a gross underestimate of how she really felt – joyful, amazed, giddy with excitement… Words didn't really do her justice at the moment.

The fairies stared at her as she passed by, some gaping, some gawking, others giggling behind their hands. Kendra didn't even notice them due to her deep daydreaming state; one fairy with short, spiky blond hair and an intricate lacy-looking short yellow dress with white trim fell victim to Kendra's blissful ignorance and was knocked off of the flower she had been sitting on as Kendra quickly strolled – or was it  _skipped?_  – by in her daze.

"Uh… whoa. Are you okay?" a voice interrupted Kendra's thought processes. Seth. Surprisingly, she had apparently made it all the way to the yard without realizing it before her brother had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Kendra snapped out of it. Partly, at least. "I'm great!" she said, probably a little more emphatically than necessary.

Seth's eyebrow raised. "Obviously. What happened to you? You weren't even like this after we saved the world." His tone of voice was cautiously curious, as though he wasn't sure he really wanted to know what was going on with his sister.

A little more pink flowed to her cheeks. "I… Nothing. It's nothing," she managed to reply, completely unconvincingly. Seth couldn't help it; his curiosity had officially been piqued.

"Then what's with the goofy grin on your face? It's like you're having three of the best Christmases ever, and all at the same time!"

"Don't worry about it." She grasped at any ideas that entered her head to come up with a reasonable excuse. "I'm just happy that everything has worked out! The world is safe, Mom and Dad are here, the garden is beautiful and the sun is shining!" She started walking toward the house quickly in hopes of getting rid of him. A few more steps brought her to the back door; as soon as she walked through the door however, Seth ran up and all but shouted, "What, did Bracken finally kiss you or something?"

Kendra froze, her face a deep red now. Who better to witness this exchange than her Grandma Sorenson, Grandpa Larsen… and Dad, who were all sitting at the kitchen table?

Once Seth entered the house after Kendra and saw everyone staring at them, he clapped a hand over his mouth. Sure, he liked to tease his sister as much as any younger brother would, but he didn't mean to embarrass her in front of the rest of the family. Well… at least not yet, anyway. He didn't know enough details, although he had an idea that he might have hit the nail directly on the head, judging by the fact Kendra's face resembled a tomato in color and she wasn't making eye contact with anyone.

The three adults stared at Seth and Kendra for a moment as a silence fell over the kitchen. Grandma Sorenson coughed and moved her coffee cup to the sink, and then Grandpa Larsen stood and said, "I think I heard my wife calling me just now." He walked out of the room after smiling and winking at Kendra, whose face miraculously turned an even darker shade of red. Seth saw Dad's expression, recognized one of those "special" talks coming on, then immediately turned around and high-tailed it back out into the yard before he could even potentially be called back to participate in that.

* * *

 

After what had to have been one of the most awkward conversations with her father that she'd ever had, Kendra had walked straight to the attic and the room she shared with Seth. Due to his sudden escape to the yard twenty minutes earlier, the room was thankfully empty. She ran to her bed and dove face-first into her pillow, smiling like a crazy person with no conscience. Despite what Dad had said, she was embarrassingly happy and she intended to stay that way for a little while longer. At least long enough for her to relive the events –  _that_  event – of the day about a hundred more times.

'He kissed me,' she thought over and over again, barely able to keep herself from bursting into what she used to call "ridiculously girly giggles." After telling her that he had every intention to visit often and basically see where things went with their relationship, he told her she was beautiful and then… he kissed her. Sort of. It was a quick peck on the cheek close to the corner of her mouth, but to Kendra it was the  _perfect_  first kiss. He picked her up immediately following, spun her around with a glorious smile on his face, embraced her tightly and let her go.

"I'll see you again soon," he promised, grinning from ear to ear and sounding as energized as she suddenly felt. "Nothing could keep me away for long."

All Kendra could manage to do at that moment was stare at him with a matching smile painted across her face; her heart, along with her arms and legs, felt like it was melting. She wouldn't have been surprised if she found she had turned into a puddle of goo in front of him.

He seemed even happier by her speechless reaction. "Kendra," he said, taking her by the hand, "I need to go. But I mean every word I've said." He started to walk away from her, then suddenly turned on the spot and placed another kiss on the back of the hand of hers that he still held. With one last smile, he let go and he ran for the Fairy Queen's shrine.

Kendra walked off of the gazebo and all but collapsed onto the lawn, her brain buzzing with excitement. After an undetermined amount of time while she stared at the white, fluffy clouds in the brilliantly blue sky, she finally stood back up and headed for the house feeling lighter than air.

Yeah, even Dad's awful "boy talk" couldn't ruin her day.


	2. Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which video game shenanigans ensue.

**Chapter 2: Competition**

"Aww… Come on!" Seth loudly complained. "I've got to beat you at least once at  _something!_ "

Bracken smiled smugly. "No, you really don't," he said.

"Seriously, you always win! Give somebody else a chance, will you?"

"You want a pity victory? That's not much to brag about," Bracken pointed out. Then he shrugged. "Being locked up in a dungeon for countless years certainly gives you a LOT of time to refine your skills at games. Well… when they were available, anyway."

Seth frowned – how could he ever compete with that!? – then he suddenly brightened as "The Idea" popped into his brain. A light bulb almost visibly turned on over Seth's head and a mischievous smile began to sneak its way across his features. "I know something I can crush you at," he said slowly.

"Oh yeah?" Bracken's curiosity was piqued. "Bring it on," he challenged.

Seth leapt up from the floor where they had been playing some old version of Risk. A chess board and all of the corresponding pieces lay scattered around, as well as a deck of cards and a very worn-out set of Chinese Checkers. From the looks of the mess of games in the living room, they'd been at this for hours.

Rushing over to the cabinet beneath the television, Seth pulled open a drawer and removed what appeared to Bracken to be an oddly shaped piece of black plastic attached to some black cords with tri-colored tips that presumably plugged into something, along with two other even more oddly shaped pieces of plastic that were much smaller than the first and identical to each other. Colored buttons adorned the two plastic things that matched, as well as a couple of moving pieces that looked like they swiveled around.

"This," said Seth dramatically as he held up the largest piece, "is a Nintendo 64. Yes, there are definitely more recent video game systems, but this is the one we have. It's still in great condition." He passed one of the smaller plastic pieces with buttons to Bracken and kept the other one.

"Seth-" Bracken began, but was cut off.

"That is your controller. How about we start with a racing game?" Seth chose a game and placed it into the console.

"Seth-"

"This is the button you press to step on the gas. This one is your brake, but if you're going to beat me then you'll never touch it." Seth then showed Bracken how to steer. "Tutorial complete," he said after a minute. Then, with a sly grin and a twinkle in his eye he added, "Are you ready to die?"

Bracken gave up trying to say whatever he had wanted to originally and smiled. "Challenge accepted, but you're the one who's going to lose."

"I have played this game for hours. There's no way you're going to defeat me!"

They selected their cars and Bracken watched the screen as the vehicles lined up at the beginning of the race. "Why are there more cars than just the two of ours?" he asked.

"The other ones are computer controlled," Seth said. "We're playing against each other and fake people."

"Gotcha." Lights on the screen were flashing red as the actual room Seth and Bracken occupied lit up tremendously, although Seth didn't react at all. Bracken heard the soft footsteps he'd recognize anywhere, and sure enough Kendra walked up from behind them. Seth didn't appear to notice as Kendra quietly sat next to and slightly behind Bracken, on the opposite side as her brother. She put her finger to her lips and reached for the controller in Bracken's hand. Bracken, ever the gentleman, obliged to her silent request. Just as the light on the screen turned green, Kendra pressed the gas button and started racing her brother.

It was clear almost right away that she was better at this than Seth was, although the two were close. Bracken chuckled at Seth's frustrated sounds and Kendra's silent expertise. She kept taking the lead, slowing down just enough to let Seth pass her slightly so he could run into some trap or other that she'd set up for him, then she'd speed ahead again. Seth hadn't caught on that she was playing instead of Bracken until she passed the finish line with a very good lead over Seth and the computer players.

"What?! How is that possible?!" Seth exclaimed as Kendra gave Bracken a high-five and they both started laughing. Seth looked at them, realized Kendra had been the one to compete against and said, "Oh, ha ha. Very funny." Directing his comments toward Bracken, Seth continued, "I can't believe you needed my  _sister_  to help you win!"

"I never raced you – that was all Kendra. So technically, she didn't help me. She did it all on her own."

Seth's face flushed.

"Oh come on," Kendra began, cutting off any response Seth had been formulating. "It wouldn't have been fair otherwise. At least Bracken chose games you both were familiar with! You picked something he's never even seen before."

"He's had  _years_  of practice with everything else and I haven't! How is  _that_  fair?!"

"Are you really letting some stupid games bother you?"

"They're not stupid, they're awesome! At least they would be if I'd just  _win_!"

"Guys!" Bracken said loudly, catching the siblings' attention. They both looked at him with the same questioning expression and suddenly he could see the family resemblance they shared. Temporarily distracted by this, he said, "You two have very similar facial features, you know?"

Seth scoffed. "I don't believe this guy!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "First he asks for help from my  _sister_  to beat me, and then he says I look like a  _girl_!" Kendra started to laugh, which annoyed Seth even more. "It's not funny!" he declared, although there was perhaps a tiny smidge of slight amusement in his eyes.

"Please calm down, Seth," Bracken began, "I didn't mean it as an insult. At any rate, what I had originally wanted to ask was… Can three people play this game?"

Seth's temper toned down to a slightly less frustrated level as Kendra responded, still smiling from laughter, "Yes. Up to four players at a time. Why? Do you want to try it?" The boys could have sworn they heard a lilt of teasing in her question.

Bracken smiled at the slightly competitive hint she was sending him. "I'd like to try," he said. "The game looks like it could be fun."

"Alright," Kendra shrugged, her tone changing to one of warning as she looked at her brother. "Go easy on him, Seth."

"No way," Seth replied, producing another controller from the drawer and handing it to Bracken. "You're player three by the way," he said as he again reminded Bracken which button was the gas and which was the brake.

The trio sat down on the floor in the same order as before with Bracken in the middle, all three paying close attention to the television as they chose their racing vehicles. In a couple minutes, their cars were lined up at the black and white checkered banner which marked the beginning of the race. The course itself was fairly simple – a rather large oval designed to look like a standard race track, with grass and sand in the center of the oval. "I'm choosing a beginner course," Kendra had explained. "So you can get used to steering. Stay out of the middle; the sand and grass will slow you way down."

"Stop helping him," Seth muttered while Kendra rolled her eyes.

"I may be going easy on Bracken, but I'm still going to beat you," she said with a matter-of-fact tone to her voice. Bracken grinned at her confidence – he rather liked seeing this side of her.

"Whatever," Seth grumbled as the lights in the game turned from flashing red to a sudden green and all three competitors raced off down the course. Kendra took the lead right away, but what surprised both her and Seth was the fact that Bracken remained even with them. In fact, he was quickly gaining the upper hand over the siblings by hugging the inside of the corners and making sure to hit all of the speed boosts on the straight ways.

"Have you played this before?" Seth asked through gritted teeth after a couple of minutes and several failed attempts to deter Bracken's progress in the game.

"This game? No," Bracken said as he passed the finish line, barely coming in ahead of Kendra who was, in turn, barely ahead of Seth.

A groan of frustration escaped Seth. "How are you so good at this if you've never played it before?!"

"I tried to tell you at the very start," Bracken began to explain calmly. "We did occasionally have a Playstation or X-Box to play while I was imprisoned. It's not that difficult to adapt to an older video gaming system after having played on more recent ones. The controllers and graphics are a little different, but that's about it."

Kendra laughed lightly as Seth purposely smacked his head against the floor. "In that case, you're on," she challenged Bracken. "We're going for the hard levels. Are you in, Seth?"

With his face still firmly planted into the hardwood floor, Seth responded, "I give up. Just… Aaaaaaaahhhh. Go on without me."

"I think you broke my brother," Kendra said to Bracken, who chuckled.

"Don't take it too hard, Seth," Bracken started, "I'm sure you'll best me at something random one of these days."

A muffled, indistinguishable response was the only sound aside from Kendra's shuffling noises as she re-situated herself next to him. Bracken smiled in contentment. He really felt like he fit right in.

 


	3. Prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the prank war begins. :)

**Chapter 3: Prank**

Kendra was sitting on the steps at the shallow end of the pool in the back yard, watching Bracken and Seth play some form of water basketball or other in the deeper section. They had tried to convince her to join them, but she had pointedly refused; she was embarrassed about being in a swimsuit in front of Bracken (not that she would ever admit it verbally). Her body had been changing a lot lately – more quickly in recent weeks than it had been over the past year or so – and while she appreciated some of the growth that was occurring, she was feeling perhaps a little too self-conscious with this much exposure. She wouldn't have even gone into the pool this afternoon if it hadn't been for Bracken's playful eyes and her internal stubborn mantra of 'fake it 'til you make it' where her confidence was concerned.

Besides, she was having a lot of fun observing them. She had to admit, things were never boring when her brother was around, and he and Bracken were almost always a gold mine for amusement and laughter. Smiling was almost completely unavoidable when those two were together.

Bracken. He looked so at ease, so  _young_  when he was visiting. It was hard to picture him as older than perhaps eighteen or nineteen; it was even harder to picture him as anything but human. There were the subtle reminders, though – like Grandpa Sorenson having to hurriedly add "unicorns" to the registry of which creatures were allowed in the yard and house while he politely stood beyond the grassy perimeter during his first formal visit. Raxtus had been granted, by Agad, immunity from magical barriers where the preserves were concerned, but apparently Bracken hadn't. He explained that Raxtus was pretty much supposed to act as Agad's eyes and ears around the preserves in order to further prevent the re-opening of Zzyzx, whereas Bracken had made it clear that he didn't want that job. He further explained that he could have attacked the wards with his horn and broken them easily since he wasn't part of the initial treaty, but then he joked that it would probably make a bad second impression on Kendra's family if he sent the preserve swirling into chaos.

She continued thinking about moments where she would catch glimpses of his non-human self when her thoughts suddenly crashed into the present as she realized that a pair of blue eyes were staring straight into her green ones from a distance of only about a foot. Startled, she clutched at her chest and shouted, "You scared me!"

Bracken laughed. "You were staring off into space," he said.

"I guess that makes me a pretty terrible referee, huh?" She joined him in light laughter. "Sorry I wasn't paying attention."

"I'm not bothered by it. What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, just… stuff," she responded vaguely, knowing that wouldn't satisfy his curiosity but hoping he would drop it. Changing the subject she asked, "Where'd Seth go?"

Bracken seemed to understand, didn't pursue his original question and instead explained, "He said he was hungry and went inside to grab a snack. He also said he'd bring us something if we wanted it."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Seth? Volunteering – unprompted – to do something nice? For me of all people? Really?"

"Do you think he's up to something?"

"Of course."

Bracken smiled, and silence fell between the two. After a minute or so, his expression changed and he looked like something was troubling him. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but then shut it and shook his head.

"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" she joked.

"No no," he began. Then, hesitantly, he continued, "You, um… Your swimsuit is nice. I mean, you look nice. In your swimsuit. Which is… nice..."

Kendra blushed and giggled a little, and Bracken shyly grinned and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. He was learning to be smoother with his compliments, but sometimes he still acted like the tongue-tied guy she met in prison. "Thank you," Kendra answered sincerely. Suddenly she felt even more self-conscious.

"One of these days, I promise I'll be able to give a compliment without making myself look like a total nincompoop," he laughed. "I'm sorry you get to be my test subject. I really am trying hard to get better at this."

"I think there are much worse things that could happen to me than being on the receiving end of awkward flattery," she stated lightheartedly. She reached out and touched his shoulder tentatively, hoping he could understand that she was not upset but wasn't quite sure how to tell him that his heartfelt words really meant a lot to her.

He apparently either received the memo or was feeling particularly affectionate because the next thing she knew, he had his arms around her in a tight embrace. "I'm really embarrassed," he admitted in her ear. "I'm just very fond of you."

Kendra felt like she was on fire. "Now  _you're_  the one embarrassing  _me_ ," she said. Part of her wanted to curl up into a ball and hide her exposed body somewhere far away perhaps under a mountain of blankets where no one would be able to look at her until after she put more clothes on, and the other part of her wanted to pull his face out of her hair and kiss him like crazy. They hadn't shared more than that one perfect, quick peck during his first visit to Fablehaven almost a year ago, after all.

She was definitely not bold enough for option two. At least not today. Option one, however…

Bracken started chuckling and she realized with a gut-wrenching jolt of mortification that he probably just read her thoughts. It's not like she had been trying to suppress them – she was practically shouting them at him while simultaneously forgetting that he could actually hear her when she did that, whether he'd intended to invade her mind or not.

She pushed him away from her and buried her face in her hands, wishing she could disappear.

"It's okay," he began in a soothing voice, "I'm not going to tell anyone."

"It's  _you_  I wanted to keep all of that from in the first place!" she almost-wailed miserably.

"I'm sorry," he apologized honestly. "I wasn't trying to pry."

He moved closer to her again and sat beside her on the steps, trying to think of something that would calm her down and yet failing. An intensely awkward silence ensued until Seth showed up with a bowl of orange slices in hand.

"I'm not sure what I missed, but I really don't think I want to know," he stated simply, tone laced with caution. Kendra jumped when she heard his voice; she hadn't noticed he was there. She wasn't sure she'd ever been more thankful to see her brother before. Judging by the way Bracken shifted beside her, he probably felt similarly.

Seth sat down on the edge of the pool, feet dangling in the water, and offered the bowl of fruit to the two of them; they both seemed to leap at the opportunity to busy themselves with something that didn't include talking to each other and grabbed a couple of slices each, stuffing them in their mouths and chewing desperately. Well… Kendra was, anyway; Bracken was a little less obviously desperate in his chewing endeavors.

She swallowed quickly and urgently reached for more, Bracken doing similarly very shortly thereafter. This time, however…

Something was wrong.

Something was very, very wrong.

Kendra spat the semi-chewed orange slice into her hand. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, "What on earth-?!"

Bracken's face paled as he forced himself to swallow, then fell into a coughing fit. "Seth,  _seriously_ …" he managed to say between gasps of air.

Seth started cracking up. "That couldn't have gone more perfectly!" he cried. He clutched at his chest as his body shook with laughter. "Whatever you guys were talking about before I came back… You didn't even think twice about it…"

"Real mature, Seth! Vinegar? Really?" Kendra shouted. She stood up and walked straight out of the pool, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her torso, meanwhile dropping her spat out piece of fruit into the bowl with the untouched ones that Seth still held. Her brother made a disgusted sound and gently tossed the plastic bowl to a spot several feet away from him, then resumed laughter.

Bracken was still coughing. Kendra could understand why; Seth had practically drowned the slice she had in vinegar and if Bracken's was the same way, he'd probably still be coughing for a little while longer since he actually swallowed it. Seth's continued guffaws pulled at her last string; she ran up to him and gave him a quick shove, planting him in the water. He shot straight up, spluttering – apparently being under water and laughter did not go hand in hand.

"Whatever," he shrugged it off, a smile returning to his face. "Your guys' reactions were totally worth that."

Kendra met Bracken's eyes and before Seth knew it, Bracken had pushed him back under the water. Seth kicked and squirmed while Bracken held him under with one hand and quickly asked Kendra, "Are we alright?"

She calmed herself down a notch and responded, "Yeah. I'm sorry. Can we just pretend like none of that happened?"

"What happened?" he asked innocently.

"That's perfect."

He grinned in response. Then, remembering that Seth was still underwater, he released his hold and allowed the boy to surface.

Seth sounded like he was going to cough up a lung. "What was  _that_?!" he managed after a moment.

"The beginnings of payback," Bracken responded. "You may have won this battle, but  _I_  will win the war."


End file.
